A price to be paid
by Kanetsuki
Summary: Yet another troubled soul visits our favourite mysterious store, with a wish that must be granted and a price that must be paid. Crossover with... hm... himitsu! I'll let you figure that one out.
1. Chapter 1

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Hello and hajimemashite :)

This marks my twentieth story on -throws confetti-  
I believe this is my first real story for either of these two series though.

I hope you enjoy it :)

p.s. translation notes are at the end of the story...

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_I'd give it up for just one more day with you; give it up, give it all away; I'd give it up for just one more day with you._

_–- Yellowcard._

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--tinkle-inkle-tink……--

The sound of a small bell resonated, sending a shrill note rippling through the dark air of the shop.

It threaded its way through the tendrils of smoke that were curling their way up towards the ceiling.

It dodged the luminescent purple butterflies that were making themselves at home in the sitting room.

It wove between dusty shelves.

And came to rest on a listening ear.

--Achoo!--

A boy sneezed and rubbed his eyes for the third time in as many minutes, stepping out of the cloud of dust that was billowing out from his fallen feather duster.

"Coming! I'm coming!" he called out through the shop, in the direction of the bell. He stomped his way through the shop, ignoring the butterflies that mobbed him, and made his way to the door; all the while muttering under his breath a slew of complaints about a certain woman, her laziness, smoking habits, and current obsession with purple butterflies. Of course, he made sure the woman in question was well out of earshot first.

--bang bang bang --

"Alright, alright!" The boy just remembered to whip the handkerchief off his head before opening the door to the person impatiently knocking on the other side.

A young man, older than the boy on whom purple butterflies still perched, but not too much older, stood on the doorstep. He slowly lowered his raised fist, as if surprised that the door had actually been answered. Or perhaps he was just surprised to have it answered by a schoolboy in housecleaning gear, covered in strange butterflies. The boy stared. The man shifted uneasily.  
He wore a torn and faded long sleeved black top, and matching pants that were equally the worse for wear. These were contrasted with a long white coat that had also seen better days, and perhaps a battle.  
But it was his eyes that drew attention.  
One bright green eye, filled with an unspeakable pain that pierced the heart, and one milky white eye that held nothing at all. Both were brimming with unshed tears.  
There was one more thing to notice about this stranger.  
His left hand was completely covered in blood.  
"I was told… does a great magician live here?" The man's voice was light and soft, but filled with a sorrow so deep you could feel it on the air.  
"Y…yeah." The boy motioned with his hand for the visitor to come inside, displacing a few winged insects as he did so. "I'll… I'll just… uh, wait here." And with that the boy scurried off to find his master.

When the younger boy returned, the stranger was just as he had left him, staring into some invisible void, heedless of his surroundings, or the few butterflies that had decided to perch on him, until the young boy cleared his throat.  
"Uh, right through here, sir."  
The young man followed, stepping into a smoky room lit by candles and strange lamps that cast even stranger shadows on the walls and shoji screen doors. The room was richly decorated with unusual European rugs and Japanese wall hangings, eldritch Eastern knick-knacks and peculiar Western trinkets. And butterflies. One could not ignore the mass of iridescent violet Lepidoptera flitting about.  
Nor could one ignore the woman reclining on the chaise lounge in the middle of the room.  
She was, in every sense of the word, enigmatic.  
She drew attention like the sun drew planets towards it.  
The young man cleared his throat uncertainly.  
"I… I was told you sell wishes."  
"That's right," the lady replied in a calm drawl, "for a price."  
The young man hadn't bothered to point out that wishes can't be sold, or that some wishes can never be granted, or that the very idea was absurd and impossible. For he knew that nothing was impossible.  
Or at least, he hoped.  
"I have no doubt that someone such as yourself has no small desire to be granted."  
The man looked at her uncertainly for a moment, before giving her a small nod. So she knew who he was, then. Well, someone in her line of work was bound to know who he was.  
"Watanuki!" she said, addressing the younger boy who had answered the door, "We need tea. Hmmm… what goes with tea?" she mused, dropping her intimidating airs for a moment.  
"I'll get the wagashi I made yesterday." The boy named Watanuki grumbled as he left the room.

"So… What can I do for the thirteenth head of the Sumeragi clan?" The woman uttered into the silence, sitting upright and disturbing a few butterflies that scattered like confetti, flitting about the room.  
"I don't know." The Sumeragi head replied honestly. "I'm sorry, but – I don't even know who you are." His voice was earnest, but dull. It seemed that he spoke cautiously, as if his heart were on the verge of shattering at any moment.  
The woman nodded, suddenly adopting a regal tone, "I am known as the space-time witch, the dimension magician, the wish granter, the shop lady. To you, Sumeragi-san, I am Ichihara Yuuko." Her arms were spread wide, like a magician's after performing a trick.  
The man nodded again.  
"My name is Subaru." He replied quietly. He knew someone in her profession wouldn't have been foolish enough to give him her full real name, but what did it matter if he divulged his? Not a lot mattered any more. Not to him.  
The woman named Yuuko tilted her head slightly "Well, Sumeragi Subaru-san… what is your wish?"


	2. Chapter 2

There was a quiet.  
It wasn't silence, for this place could never be truly silent, but the noise was that of dust caught in late afternoon shafts of sunlight, of smoke silkily twining its way through the air, of an ambience settling.  
And the noise of many tiny purple wings fluttering.

"Do you believe in _Hitsuzen_?"  
"I believe… I used to believe in a lot of things," He answered quietly, his voice almost breaking with unspoken emotions, "But now… I just want _him_."  
The woman sitting on the chaise lounge shifted, tapping the end of her cigarette holder lightly. The smoke floated out the end in graceful drifts, spiralling into impossible fractals.  
"There are many who would like to have others, and maybe they can, and maybe they can't. But nothing comes without paying a price."  
"I just need to see him." He answered simply.

There was a pause, in which the soft flicker of the burning lamps could be heard, the noiseless sound of Fate twining, and the gentle silence of dust settling.  
But it was just a pause.

"A simple request." She replied.  
It was anything but, and the two of them both knew it.  
The woman in front of him smirked.  
Subaru wondered if what he was doing was the right thing. He couldn't help but think that this woman would be like a trickster spirit, twisting his wish around so that his heart's desire remained unfulfilled.  
"My request is to see someone I am unable to… to… he's..."  
She nodded.  
"I need to tell him… Well," he looked down bitterly, "I'd like to talk to him. I'd like to see him…"  
She didn't ask the young man why he needed to see this person, or why it was that the powerful onmyouji could not fulfil this wish himself.

And while the hush of time ticking passed over their ears, the two exchanged a look. It stretched across the room like a pianist's melody. In the young man's heart a desire unfolded like a flower, and the truth was plain to view. In the space-witch's eyes there was a simple understanding. Things were what they were, and things were how they were. And that was that.

"What was his name?" was all she asked.

"Sakurazukamori Seishiro."

If the name surprised her, she did not show it. As ever, she hid behind her mask of mystery, not deigning to note that the solitary member of the assassin clan of the Sakurazukamori was the Sumeragi's mortal enemy. Or that the powerful sorcerer had once placed a bet with death-wish stakes on the young onmyouji's heart.  
Or that he was dead.

Instead, she held his piercing, empty gaze with her own firm, calculating gaze, eternity glittering in the amber depths.  
"From one in the top of their profession to another, I don't need to remind you that this will cost you dearly."  
"I don't know what I can offer you. He… he has all of me."  
The space-time witch could see the effort it was taking him to keep going, to keep his mind from splintering into a thousand sharp pieces, but it looked as though he were long accustomed to it.

And of course she knew why. The fate of this man, of the two souls in question right now, was well known to anyone in the business of fate, just as the time-old classic story of Romeo and Juliet is passed around the world and through the ages. Theirs was a cruel and tragic fate instigated by none other than themselves. It was tangled, like a red string jammed in the shiny metal gears of a machine, stretched and twisted, but never broken. And perhaps the very fate of a world would be altered due to her interference, but that was her job. That was why people sought her out.  
There were no coincidences, only Hitsuzen.

"There have been many things given to me in return for a wish. For something this great, I would usually require the thing most important to you. But I can see in this case, that price cannot be paid." The focus of her alluring stare shifted to the solitary butterfly playing in the snakes and swirls of smoke that framed her, and she thought carefully.

"Please. I'd like a day with him. Just a day" Subaru pleaded, anxiety showing through his careful façade.  
The woman named Yuuko remained silent.  
"Please," his voice wavered, "I just need an hour with him." Desperation flooded his voice, "Or five minutes even. I just… I need to see him." His voice cracked, and with it, his composure. A dry sob escaped, strangling his next words. "I just need to see him for five minutes, five minutes…"  
Yuuko listened to his despairing pleas that were punctuated now by broken sobs. "Please, that's all I need" the thirteenth head of the Sumeragi clan said in a quiet, hoarse voice, "I just need to tell him."

He had managed to keep from breaking down, managed to curb the tears that must have filled his entire body, but still. It must have seemed a pathetic display to such a woman as the one in front of him. But such a woman was not interested in whether he was pathetic or not. It was not her place to judge whether a young man, albeit Sumeragi Subaru, should hide and hold a heart shattered thrice over. What was hers to judge was the weight of his request. The value of his heart's desire. The price of his wish.  
And it was hard, because there was clearly nothing that the man valued any more, excepting this one wish. He had no treasured possessions, no ties to loved ones. He did not care for his memories, his future, his heart. But… there was something he had that always carries weight.

She turned her attention back to him. There was payment to discuss.  
"There is only one thing you have, that can balance the weight of your request. Are you prepared to give it up?"  
She stared straight into his eyes, her full intensity burning into his one emerald eye.  
"Yes."  
"Then so be it."


	3. Chapter 3

--tap tap tap--

There was a light knocking on the shoji doors before they slid open. A young man entered the room carrying two carefully balanced trays. Setting them gingerly on the table, he looked over at his mistress, who, having noticed the colourful array of sweets accompanying the tea, was beaming.  
"Ah, beautiful wagashi! Lovingly hand crafted by Watanuki!" She gushed. The boy ignored her antics, looking over at the customer curiously. He was startled to notice there was now another stranger in the room.  
"Oh – I'm sorry! I didn't know we had another guest. I'll go get another cup."  
"No, that won't be necessary," the stranger replied, "We were just leaving."  
He smiled warmly at Watanuki, although the expression was somehow disconcerting. "Thank you very much though. Your wagashi do look delicious" Subaru smiled apologetically. There was something different about him now, the boy thought to himself. About both of them. But he couldn't put his finger on it. The young man with the emerald green eye didn't look so broken now… more whole and complete – like a missing part of his soul has been regained. Maybe that's what he had asked Yuuko for, Watanuki speculated.  
"Well, take care then. I Hope to see you again." The boy said politely.  
Subaru smiled at him once more; the sorrow hadn't left his eyes, but then, perhaps it had always been there.  
"I doubt we'll meet again. I hope not too soon, at least." He answered in his soft, measured tones, leaving the boy to puzzle over this remark as he turned to Yuuko and bowed.  
"Thank you."  
It was all he said, all he could say. It was all that was needed.  
The other man gave her a nod and then the two of them headed towards the door together.  
The raven haired woman waved erratically at their backs, calling her goodbyes which included a few implications to the effect that the less people there were, the more wagashi candy there would be for her.

"Hmmm…"  
Watanuki heard his employer muse. He knew that noise. It was the noise that generally meant there was going to be a lot more work and trouble for him in the near future.  
"Tea is good, but… What else goes with wagashi?"  
Watanuki had a fair idea of what would go with wagashi, according to Yuuko.  
And it wouldn't be something that would leave her sober.  
He waited for it quietly, mentally checking out the opening and closing times of the nearest pharmacy.  
"Sake!" came the triumphant cry. "Hmm… or maybe Umeshu…?"  
Watanuki left her to run through her encyclopaedic knowledge of alcohol and resigned himself to dragging out half of her liquor cabinet.  
He returned to find an impatient Yuuko and half the wagashi. It was only as he was pouring something-or-other drink that he noticed he hadn't had to bat any small purple flying insects out of the way for a while. Since those two customers had left, now that he thought about it. He wondered again about that strange feeling he had gotten from the two of them and decided to ask Yuuko about it, since she was (or would be very shortly) in such a good mood.

"Have you ever heard the story of the fate of the thirteenth head of the Sumeragi clan and the Sakurazukamori?" she asked him, biting into a pale pink daifuku.  
The boy shook his head – those names meant nothing to him.  
"That young man's wish was to see someone dear to him. But he had nothing with which to pay the price."  
Watanuki looked back at her in surprise. He had seen Yuuko take hair, a high-chair and memories as payment for her services. He couldn't imagine a wish so big that someone couldn't pay the price; or someone who had so very little that any price was too high.  
Yuuko took a swig from her glass, smacking her lips together in appreciation.  
"There is something that every living soul has, that carries a great weight though."  
Watanuki nibbled on a green matcha manju, clueless as to what the woman was driving at, but knowing that she delighted in drawing these things out mysteriously. If there was anything one could say about Yuuko, it was that she was mysterious.  
He let his eyes wander around the room as she picked out another sweet wagashi, until he noticed a solitary butterfly fluttering in the corner. He watched it flitter about aimlessly before joining its fellows, perched on something in the corner. Perched on something long. Something wearing a white coat.  
Watanuki's eyes widened.  
Every butterfly in the room was perched there, like a living purple carpet, like some sort of honour guard.

"Huh? But-! You told me that anyone who knows that never kills anyone, because the consequences are too great!" the boy cried, staring at the once living body of Sumeragi Subaru.  
The woman raised her glass and took a long sip before answering the boy.  
"I did not kill that boy. I traded something of value for something of equal value." Her voice was calm and cold, and her eyes never once left Watanuki's. He gripped his warm cup of tea solemnly, mentally willing himself not to shake or tremble.  
"Do you remember what I told you when we first met?"  
He shook his head and took a small sip of the green tea. Yuuko shook her finger at him, adopting a reprimanding expression.  
"Tut tut. What am I going to do with an assistant-"  
"You mean slave"  
"-that doesn't learn? I told you that a person's life has the greatest weight of all. You should remember that, Watanuki."

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--wagashi is a type of Japanese sweet. (look it up on Wikipedia for more info and pictures) 

--manju is a particular type of wagashi

--matcha manju is green tea flavoured manju.

--lepidoptera is part of the scientific name for butterflies.


End file.
